Biking in Rwanda

I ended up being in Rwanda for 3 weeks on a biking trip with 6 other students and 4 adults. Biking is what made the difference for us. We would ride our bikes every other day for about 30 to 50 kilometers, but no matter where we were, the bike was always our communication tool – a way to open the door with the children we met. The kids would see us ride by on our bikes and it was something they had seen before and were familiar with, but here were 7 white kids from American riding through their village and they immediately wanted to find out more about us. Then either we would try to teach them how to ride, or they would show us that they already knew how.

Have you traveled in other countries and found a communication tool similar to our bicycles? Have you riden bikes in other countries? What have you used to ‘break the ice’ with people in other countries?

13 year old Eliana Schiffer from Santa Barbara, California went on a 3 week bike ride this summer in Rwanda with her teacher’s family and 6 other students from Santa Barbara Middle School.

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